Suzuki Harunobu and the Birth of Nishiki-e — The Calendar Exchange Revolution of 1765

1765 — The Watershed of Ukiyo-e History

Meiwa 2 (1765) is the greatest watershed in ukiyo-e history. In this year, in Edo, nishiki-e (brocade prints) — full multicolor printed pictures — were born. For 100 years before, ukiyo-e had basically been either sumizuri + hand-coloring or benizuri-e in 2-3 colors, and inferior to hand-painted pictures in “color-reproduction ability.”

From 1765 on, prints reached 8, 10, and 15 colors in overprinting, achieving a coloration that could rival hand-painted works. This was the moment when ukiyo-e first arrived at “a picture whose completion could only be achieved by printing.” The center of this technical revolution was Suzuki Harunobu (c. 1725-1770).

The Daishō-reki Calendar Exchange — From an Amateur Hobby to Technical Revolution

Surprisingly, the trigger for the birth of the nishiki-e was not the work of a professional painter.

What Are Daishō-reki (Calendar Pictures)?

In the Edo-era calendar, each month was divided into the “great month (30 days)” and the “small month (29 days).” Apart from the official calendar issued by the shogunate, there was a fashion of privately making abbreviated pictorial calendars (ryakureki-e) in which the arrangement of great and small months was hidden in a picture. These were daishō-reki (picture calendars).

• The outside was a picture, but hidden in the picture was the arrangement of the great and small months
• Combined intellectual amusement, puzzle-element, and art appreciation
• Loved by cultured people of the samurai and merchant class

The Exchange Gathering of Meiwa 2

In the first month of 1765, calendar-picture enthusiasts of Edo (centered on the shogun’s direct retainer Ōkubo Jinshirō) held a “daishō-reki exchange gathering.” To compete on the quality of the calendar pictures the participants brought, luxurious multicolor calendar pictures were made without regard to cost:

• Participants bore the cost privately — commercial profitability could be ignored
• A budget that let the painter, engraver, and printer show their best technique
• Investment in overprinting of 8 or more colors, and special techniques (kirazuri, karazuri)

This became a technical laboratory. Multicolor printing, which had not been profitable in commercial prints, was realized in these luxurious amateur calendar pictures.

Commission to Harunobu

The Ōkubo Jinshirō group of enthusiasts commissioned the young painter Suzuki Harunobu to draw preparatory pictures for the calendars. Harunobu used this chance to succeed at 8-10 color overprinting, and gained overwhelming acclaim at the exchange gathering.

Afterward, publishers turned this technique to commercial publication, and Harunobu’s “nishiki-e” were put on sale at picture-book shops in Edo. With this, ukiyo-e leapt at once into the age of color.

Suzuki Harunobu — A Short Life

Early Life (unknown)

• Born around 1725, in Edo (various theories)
• Origins and apprenticeship are almost unknown. Said to have received indirect influence from Nishikawa Sukenobu of Kyoto
• 1750s-1760s, active in Edo as a painter of benizuri-e
• Working with publishers older than Tsutaya (Tsuruya Kiemon and others), he put out works

From the Birth of Nishiki-e to Death (1765-1770)

• 1765, played a decisive role in the birth of the nishiki-e
• In the 5-6 years from 1765 to 1770, produced nearly 1,000 nishiki-e
• June 1770 (Meiwa 7), died around age 45. Said to have been 46
• Died suddenly only 5 years after the birth of the nishiki-e; detailed cause of death unknown

A painter who left so many works in so short an active period, with that entire period coinciding with a technical peak, is rare in ukiyo-e history. Harunobu’s five years made the technical and thematic mold for the next 100 years of ukiyo-e.

Harunobu’s Style — Medium Format, Lyricism, Mitate

1. Adoption of the Medium Format (Chū-ban)

Until then, ukiyo-e had centered on the large format (about 39 cm tall). Harunobu made the medium format (about 27 cm tall), suited to multicolor printing, the mainstream. The medium format:

• Lets the painter’s detail and the engraver’s cutting show even in the fine parts
• Lets the printer’s color layering settle precisely
• Is a size easy to display in an ordinary home

Thus the standard “nishiki-e = medium-format multicolor print” was fixed.

2. Lyricism — Forming “Ephemerality”

Harunobu’s bijin-ga turned away from the plump courtesan style of before:

• Slender bodies like a young girl
• Large eyes and thin chin, girls’-manga-like
• Serene, dreamy expressions
• The single moment of a daily scene — inside a room, a garden, an engawa

This ephemeral and lyrical style is directly linked to the aesthetic of the peaceful middle-Edo townspeople culture. Harunobu’s pictures are sometimes described as “Edo’s Victorian young-girl image.”

3. Mitate-e

A representative technique of Harunobu is mitate. Scenes from the classics (Tale of Genji, Ise Monogatari, waka) are replaced by scenes of Edo present (townspeople’s daily life).

• Mitate Setsu-getsu-ka — the three classical topics expressed in townspeople’s young girls
• Mitate Rokkasen — the six Heian poets as if they were Edo courtesans
• Mitate Narihira — Ariwara no Narihira as a handsome man of the town

Fusion of intellectual parody and bijin-ga. This was a device that appealed to the cultured layers, and one reason Harunobu’s pictures were also bought by samurai and monks.

Representative Works

Setchū Aiaigasa (Umbrella in the Snow, c. 1765)

A young man and woman walking under one umbrella in the snow. The peak of Harunobu’s lyricism. A universal scene that even reaches to today’s love depiction.

Zashiki Hakkei Series (1766)

A series that transposes the Chinese landscape topic “Xiao-xiang Hakkei (Eight Views of the Xiao-Xiang)” to interior room scenes of Edo. A representative work of mitate-e. Examples:

• Tenugui-gake no Kihan — the returning ship → the action of hanging up a hand towel
• Kyōdai no Shūgetsu — the autumn moon → the mirror stand of makeup

Fūryū Shiki Kasen Series (1768)

Four-seasons landscape and beauties. The summit of medium-format completeness. One of Harunobu’s representative series.

Sumida-gawa no Watashi (c. 1768)

A work depicting a beauty on the Sumida River ferry. The everyday poetry of the streets of Edo, expressed in 8-color overprinting.

Technical Innovations

The new techniques established in Harunobu’s nishiki-e:

1. Overprinting of 8-10 Colors

Far exceeding previous benizuri-e (2-3 colors). A separate woodblock for each color, precisely stacked with kentō marks.

2. Kirazuri (Mica Printing)

The technique of fixing mica powder to the paper with nikawa glue. It shines silver in the light. Widely used in Harunobu’s backgrounds, giving a fantastical effect.

3. Karazuri (Blind Printing)

The technique of pressing the woodblock without ink. Makes an embossed relief on the paper. Used on folds of white garments.

4. Mokume-zuri (Woodgrain Printing)

Prints the surface of a woodblock with wood grain, transferring the texture of wood onto the paper. Used in Harunobu’s landscapes.

These special techniques were not profitable in commercial prints, but they were invested in Harunobu’s nishiki-e.

The Development of the Nishiki-e after Harunobu

After Harunobu’s death in 1770, the technique and subject of the nishiki-e were carried on by other painters:

• Isoda Koryūsai (1735-1790) — Harunobu’s direct successor
• Katsukawa Shunshō (1726-1793) — moved nishiki-e into actor prints (next article)
• Torii Kiyonaga (1752-1815) — the age of large-format bijin-ga (next article)

The medium-format, lyrical, mitate lineage of Harunobu leads directly to Utamaro’s bijin-ga in the 1790s.

Why 1765 Is the “True Birth of Ukiyo-e”

The origin of ukiyo-e is usually placed with Iwasa Matabei (first half of the 17th century) or Hishikawa Moronobu (late 17th century). But in the sense of technical and aesthetic completion, the true beginning of ukiyo-e can be said to be the birth of the nishiki-e in 1765.

• Around 1670: Moronobu makes the “single-sheet print” medium
• Around 1710: Torii school establishes the actor-print subject
• 1720s-1750s: Beni-e, benizuri-e — experiments with color
• 1765: Color is completed in the nishiki-e — ukiyo-e stands up as “picture”
• 1790s: Utamaro and Sharaku — the peak of figure painting
• 1830s: Hokusai and Hiroshige — the peak of landscape painting

From 1765 on, ukiyo-e becomes an expression where printing technique and artistic quality fully fused, and the 100 years of development that follow become possible.

From This Article to the Next

After Harunobu’s medium-format lyrical bijin-ga, the nishiki-e developed in two directions. Katsukawa Shunshō brought the nishiki-e technique into actor prints, creating a lineage of individual portraits distinct from the Torii school. Torii Kiyonaga turned away from Harunobu’s lyricism into the tall large-format beauties that dominated the 1780s. The next article traces these two painters and the development of the nishiki-e in the 1770s-1780s.